Communications Officer for the two British National Party's MEPs and
the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Workington

"I wasn't 'imprisioned', I was fined £1,500. I refused to pay this on a matter of principle. It was my personal choice to serve three months in Pentonville Prison back in the 1980s in protest at our draconian race relations laws."

About Me

Monday, 30 June 2008

What a great weekend. The Summer School was brilliant and everyone who attended must have been impressed not only with the lectures but with the calibre of all the delegates there.

Tina and I drove back to Cumbria yesterday afternoon really boosted by what had taken place. In fact, it was a good weekend all round. We stayed over Friday and Saturday at the Cross Keys pub which was about ten minutes from the site and were joined there by Geoff Dickens and John Ryde from the East Midlands and Kevin Edwards and Mike Green from West Wales.

I have attended scores of these sort of events in my time in politics and I can honestly say that now were are moving into quite a different sphere. We are now on a level of competence never before reached by a British nationalist political party.

The publicity in the aftermath of the Henley by-election has been quite incredible. It was brilliant sitting in the packed pub on Friday evening and listening to the BBC six o'clock news reporting that the British National Party had beaten Labour in Henley.

All the publicity has done our credibility the world of good and sets us up for this Thursday when there is another important round of local council by-elections.

One of these is in Barking and before everyone gets too excited about us gaining our thirteenth seat on the council I must warn that I have heard that both Labour, and especially the Tories, are putting in huge campaigns which include bussing in workers from across London.

I will do a report on the by-elections, including all the full details, tomorrow.

Friday, 27 June 2008

THE disappointment of losing our deposit in Henley yesterday has most certainly been compensated by the massive publicity we have received this morning.

Every TV and radio station and every newspaper carries the story that BNP candidate Tim Rait beat Labour and in The Times and Telegraph 'BNP' made it into the headline of each report.

John Humprys on Radio 4's Today programme gave the BNP a plug for beating Labour in the lead-in to the seven o'clock news.

It is huge publicity and is definitely worth the £500 lost in the deposit, although that does hurt given our precarious financial situation.

Our vote in Blackpool - 12% got squeezed but there was a good first effort in Hatfield Central -11%.

There's another round of important by-elections taking place next Thursday the full details will be given in this blog or on the main BNP website on Monday. Last night's full results are on that website.

Big weekend for the British National Party with the Summer School taking place in Wales, so here's hoping the weather stays fine.

Thursday, 26 June 2008

GEORGE Orwell would have applauded the Labour Government today for providing the best example of '1984 Newspeak' in recent years.

This morning Harriet Harman introduced a new Equality Bill and that bill directly discriminates against a person if they are White and discriminates against them again if they are male. Thankfully the injustice of it all has not been lost on our tabloid press and both the Daily Mail and Daily Express expose the legislation for exactly what it is - nothing to do with equality but all to do with giving ethnic minorities living in Britain an advantage over the indigenous population.

Interestingly enough ITN, when reporting the item, forgot to mention the main beneficiaries of the new Bill. They mentioned that women would benefit and that older people would benefit, but it just slipped their minds to tell the public that it was the ethnic minorities who would benefit more than anyone else.

Our criticism of the BBC has been proved correct, and confirmation that the ethnic minorities are over represented within the Corporation has come from none other than Dr Samir Shah, a non- executive director and the former head of current affairs at the BBC.

He said that said the politically correct antics of broadcasters were creating an ' inauthentic representation of who we are' and blamed a 'metropolitan, largely liberal, white, middle-class elite' for ensuring ethnic minority presence on-screen 'regardless of editorial imperatives'.

Dr Shah, who also runs his own production company, said one of the 'odder and plain daft outcomes' of equal opportunities was over-compensation.

"I don't know if there is any systematic data on this but I think we can all agree that there is no shortage of black and Asian reporters and presenters around these days - especially on news programmes," said Dr Shah. "I suspect there is a goodly presence of them even in areas where Black and Asian faces are pretty thin on the ground. "Let's not forget the UK is still 90 per cent white - not everyone lives in London or the West Midlands.' "I don't think that such over-representation is a brilliant idea,' he added.

Let's just hope that Dr Shah's comments get the publicity they deserve.

Henley today, and elections in Blackpool and Hatfield, so here's wishing the very best of luck to our three brave candidates.

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

I RECEIVED an email from Wayne McDermott yesterday evening, providing an update on the current election situation.

Wayne says he has been working hard on the preparation of the Henley leaflets for posting:"The process has been a bit of a nightmare and took in excess of 500 hours to do and still didn’t get them perfect," he said."But on a positive note we will now know the way to do them in future which I believe would half the time if not more."The odds on Labour saving deposit lengthen 1/4 now which makes the 4/6 I first saw an amazing bet . . why didn’t I take it? "According to the bookies, Labour are now 80% sure of losing their deposit compared to the original 40%."This is one area the Labour vote will not hold up I am certain. I'm not even sure if they have done much of a campaign. I only saw the Conservative and Liberal Democrat mail at the Post Office when I dropped ours off. "I think its now a case of Labour struggling to get 5%, so the big question is can we beat them, UKIP and the Greens?"

Well that's Wayne's take on things and his analysis seems to match up to reports from other sources. Mark Burke, the South East's Deputy Regional Organiser on the website last night was saying he was hopeful of securing 5% of the vote, and other feedback has put us on the same percentage.

It's a difficult one to call. A saved deposit in these difficult financial times would be brilliant but that's a tall order in a constituency like Henley.

Today, once this blog has been posted, I shall do a couple of hours on Freedom and then concentrate on my Summer School submission. I'm hoping the weather down in Wales is better than it is up here in Cumbria. It has rained cats and dogs this morning and the sky is so dark we have had to put the lights on to be able to work.

Tuesday, 24 June 2008

THE music press and the Nu Labour rag, The Mirror, are full of the story that Lily Allen has written a song attacking the BNP.

They seem to acclaim the little ditty as a great blow against our recent progress and are convinced that it will deter hundreds of thousands of voters from putting their cross in our box on the ballot paper.

What delights me is that our opponents really believe that a song that has a chorus full of expletives is going to dent our political progress. It's the Labourshambles syndrome all over again, just like before the May elections when they put their faith in Pete Doherty to derail our London Assembly aspirations.

I've no doubt Lily and Pete have huge followings, but their music isn't mainstream and I would believe quite restricted to an audience of a certain age group. It is highly unlikely that that the music itself will change the mind of someone considering voting BNP, so that leaves it down to the personalities themselves using the huge press coverage they are given to convince voters to reject our policies.

I can honestly say that I wouldn't believe that they are the sort of role models to change anyone's political opinion . . . but I could be wrong.

I see the BBC were at it again. Not content with boosting UKIP in the run-up to the Henley by-election by inviting Nigel Farage, yet again, on to its Question Time programme, they gave the UKIP leader more publicity yesterday and widely aired his comments that UKIP were challenging Labour for third place in Thursday's by-election.

There's no doubt that it will be a close run thing between Labour, the Greens, UKIP and ourselves for that third spot, but on the national level of support based on May's local election, UKIP are definitely bottom of the pile and would be outsiders to topple Labour.

Yet the BBC have ignored the Greens and the BNP and promoted UKIP to the status main challenger. I would like to know on what evidence they have done this. Have they commissioned a special poll that we don't know about? Has Farage bunged them a few quid for the publicity? Or is it the anti-BNP brigade at Broadcasting House doing all they can to promote UKIP while ignoring us?

Monday, 23 June 2008

THERE was an interesting report in The Guardian on Friday by Jonathan Rutherford entitled "Is this the end of social democracy?" and carrying the sub-heading - The BNP is capitalising on the fear and anger caused by the cultural destruction of the working class.

"In Labour heartlands there is a powerful feeling of being dispossessed. As one BNP supporter, who appears on a YouTube video puts it, "the majority of our policies, if you bother to read them, veer toward socialism. We are probably the old Labour party in essence. We care about the working class people."She points across to a counter-demonstration and says, "When some of those people stand over there and tell me I have no rights ... I have blood and I have history on this soil and that's what I'll fight to defend."

It seems that we have managed to run a very professional campaign in Henley, so it will be interesting to see what vote can be achieved. In a General Election we probably wouldn't consider, at the moment, contesting a seat like Henley, but we don't pick and choose our by-elections and Tim Rait and Andy McBride have done extremely well with little time and resources to hand.

Some of the political forums that I visit seem to think that the BNP have failed to make much of an impact in the constituency apart from on the couple of housing estates in Thame. A number of pundits think we will be well beaten by Labour, UKIP and the Greens in the all-important battle for third place. Personally I shall be surprised if we are beaten by UKIP even though they polled quite well here in the 2005 General Election. They should, of course, be on the defensive over the suspension of another one of their MEP's for fraud, but there has been little publicity about the investigation into Tom Wise, and UKIP boss Nigel Farage was trotted out by the BBC last week for his upmteenth appearance on Question Time just to give UKIP a boost before polling day.

Still on Henley, Tim Rait has his personal contribution carried in the Henley Standard this morning. You can read about the other candidates covered here, but this is Tim's one.

“I grew up in Berkshire and am now retired. My career was in shipping and marine insurance, which involved working both in London and abroad. I am the father of three adult children. “Appreciating the lovely Thames Valley, as I do, I am concerned at over development. At present central government imposes its demands on local councils. I believe that local people should be fully consulted about further developments. “The British people should be consulted before great changes are made to our country’s character. Consultation and prior approval are basic requirements of democracy. “Britain should quit the European Union which is basically an undemocratic institution. The Lisbon Treaty forms a dangerous constitution and should not go forward without the promised referendum. A vital promise has been broken. “Too much taxation and government waste. The taxes on low paid workers are excessive. I call for the tax free earnings allowance to be greatly increased. Hardworking people should be able to keep more of their own money in their pockets. “The abuse of human rights legislation should cease and the rights of the law abiding public should come before the claims of criminals and law breakers.”

I don't have any info on these two elections, so if anyone does know how the campaign is going please let me know and I shall give them a mention on the main BNP site. On paper, Blackpool looks quite an interesting prospect while in Hatfield it will be all about beating Labour.

Friday, 20 June 2008

WHEN does 'NO' actually mean 'NO'? That was a question posed by one Irish political commentator this morning when interviewed by John Humphrys over Ireland's brave rejection of the new EU treaty.

Obviously the usually sensible Humphrys had his questions written for him this morning, because he asked "Are the Irish people now regretting voting 'NO'.

I'm afraid I then indulged in one of my rants at the radio, shouting something along the lines of "if other countries had a referendum they would all vote 'NO' as well". I think this is quite a safe assumption as Ireland was always one of the most pro-EU member countries and if they have had enough of the EU dictatorship and EU corruption, then you can bet all those who were less enthusiastic, feel the same.

In fact, it was a 'rant at the radio' morning with one expert on gun and gang crime claiming the Government figures were woefully unrepresentative of the true level of the problem in London, Birmingham and Manchester. He said he didn't know why this was the case. Well I told him, and anyone else that was listening while I pounded out my early morning five miles on my exercise bike. "Gun and gang crime in inner city areas is in reality Black crime and the authorities must pretend this isn't happening, so that's why any Government statistics on this are inadequate."

The other day in the London Assembly Boris Johnson reprimanded Richard Barnbrook for drawing attention to the extent of gun and gang crime in the capital and suggesting that black youngsters were involved. Johnson cited the "Black mothers against gun crime" lobby to show how the ethnic minorities were dealing with this dilemma. Can you imagine an organisation called "White mothers against gun crime" being lorded in a similar way by the London Mayor?

Good letter in the Halesowen News this morning which read:

"The main victim's of Labour's abandonment of any secure border control's have been the unskilled and least educated British people.These people have in the past relied upon unskilled work to provide income but since the admission of more states to the EEC, the resultant flood of foreign workers has all but swamped the U.K.There is not an area in the employment sector that has escaped unscathed and the long term British unemployed are being denied their last real chance of gainful employment.It is a tragedy of major proportions for Britain's lowest paid working folk and one that will come back to haunt the Labour party.In its haste to create a new multicultural Britain, Labour has jettisoned any care or responsibility for the very people which Labour was funded to protect.Thankfully there is a new kid on the block' the British National Party.Who I'm sure will do their best to protect the rights of the native working folk of this small island of ours!!G E Trumper, Sunbury Road".

The BNP being "the new kids on the block" is a phrase that was first used by our excellent press officer Simon Darby three or four years ago. I remember he was being interviewed by Channel 4 at the time of the May local elections and there was a near riot going on behind him as Labour supporters were trying to drown him out, when he said, "The BNP are the new kids on the block, and the Labour Party doesn't like it."

The promotion by BBC News of the ethnic minorities at every opportunity is now reaching a level where it has become a joke. Anyone watching its reports would think that Black and Asian people make up the majority in this country and that most schools in Britain hardly have any White children left in them. But that's what the mind-benders at the Beeb want people to think - that the colonisation of this country by people from the Third World has gone so far that nothing can be done to reverse the trend.

Thankfully, there is a growing number of people in this country who know that this isn't the case.

Thursday, 19 June 2008

THERE is further proof that we are slowly edging our way into our country's political mainstream in a report in today's Independent.

Dennis Hayes a visiting professor at the Westminster Institute of Education at Oxford Brookes University, in an interview with the newspaper's Chris Green, argues that academics should have the freedom to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions with impunity, no matter how offensive they might be. He said:

"People ask me if I would let the BNP in on a debate, and I say, "Of course I would." It's not because I'm a racist or I like the BNP, it's because you have to respect people's ability to make up their own minds about an issue."

Well, that's all we have ever asked. It is the right of any political party in a free society to be able to argue its case before the electorate so that they can decide whether what we have to say has any merit or not. Since 1977 and the repercussions from the National Front's Lewisham march, that freedom has been denied to all nationalist political parties in Britain.

There was a great quote from BNP press officer Simon Darby in yesterday's Times concerning the resignation of David Davis.

The newspaper reported:Mr Davis is eager for an opponent of substance, but not even the British National Party is willing to add its name to the list of fringe parties standing against him. Simon Darby, the BNP’s deputy leader, said yesterday that the far-right party shared Mr Davis’s opposition to the Government’s 42-day detention plan for terrorism suspects.“We would argue that these people [jihadist extremists] should not be in the country in the first place, but if the price we have to pay for the accommodation of millions of immigrants is the scrapping of our ancient rights, then it is not a price worth paying,” he said.

It's an important and timely quote because many of our supporters have been saying we should stand against Mr Davis because we need the 42 days to keep Britain safe from terrorism. Of course, that is just a reaction to the flawed immigration polices of both Labour and the Tories. We shouldn't be forced to change our fundamental beliefs for short-termism due to the mistakes of others.

It's a similar argument to those who said we should welcome the Shanghai Automotive announcement that jobs might be saved in the West Midlands. We should have our own car industry, and not be happy to accept scraps from the table of a foreign car firm.

It was just about the first game of Euro 2008 that I actually enjoyed last night. I thought Russia played good entertaining football and I shall be supporting them in the Quarter Finals.

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

IN the Top-Up List vote for the London Assembly for Chadwell Heath Ward in Barking and Dagenham, the British National Party came third behind Labour and the Tories.

The full result was:Barking & Dagenham CouncilChadwell HeathThursday 1st May 2008Labour Party 636Conservative Party 567British National Party 390Liberal Democrats 135UK Independence Party 94Green Party 67

Now there is a by-election in Chadwell Heath on July 3rd and the BNP candidate is 24 year-old James Webb. He is an electrical engineer who was born in Dagenham and stood as a BNP candidate in Village ward in 2006 where he was just 15 votes short of becoming the BNP’s 13th councillor in Barking and Dagenham.

Chadwell Heath is a real Labour and Conservative Party battleground with all the other parties normally squeezed out, but the votes on May 1st show that the BNP is now emerging as a serious challenger here.

Once again Labour are employing the help of a ‘UKIP candidate’ to try to syphon off a few BNP votes.

The UKIP candidate is Kerry Smith, whose sister, Nadine Smith, just happens to be a Chadwell Heath Labour councillor and whose elder brother Liam Smith, just happens to be the deputy leader of the Labour group on Barking & Dagenham Council.

I visit a site called Vote 2007 most days which has all the latest election info provided by a variety of different political sources. It was interesting to read this morning that our canvassers in Henley are concentrating on the housing estates in the constituency in an effort to win over the Labour vote! There are plenty of similar interesting postings and I suspect that a couple of BNP sympathisers have managed to register for this forum, which was something I was unable to do.

The move into the new office has been put back to the weekend because of some logistic problems, so there's a still few more days working from home.

Severe weather warnings for Cumbria but at the moment it's still fine although the wind is getting up. Better get ready to batten down the hatches.

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Better late than never, so the saying goes, and the June issue of Freedom will finally be out this weekend.

Why it is late, can best be summed up with something that was discussed at an excellent management training session in Chester last Thursday.

"If you don't control your work environment then you can't work efficiently."

Well, I haven't controlled my work environment since I moved from my office in mid-April, and that I haven't been able to work efficiently is very evident in the tardiness of this issue of Freedom. Still, this state of affairs changes today, so I'm hopeful that a brand spanking new office will provide the ideal work environment.

Apologies for my non-blogging, but I have been busy decorating - up at six and finishing 12 hours later. It's mind-numbingly boring but with the help of Classic FM and Radio 4's news bulletins, the job was done in four days.

Great result for us in Carlisle on Thursday. The full details can be found on Clive Jefferson's excellent blog here

This result is much better than it might seem at first. Quite apart from the squeeze from the ward being a Labour/Tory marginal and the Labour vote holding up amazingly well, there was another important factor.

Our original candidate had to pull out at the last minute because of work commitments. He was a local chap and would have had a local following. Rather than not stand a candidate at all, our Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford, bravely stepped into the breach.

But, of course, there was one major drawback with this and that was the fact that Paul lives in Wigton which is 10 miles away from Cockermouth and in this part of the world if you don't actually live within a town's boundaries, then you might as well live on another planet.

So all in all it wasn't a bad result considering the far from ideal circumstances.

Freedom is in its final stages and I must press on with it now as next week is disrupted with meetings and if that slot at the printers is missed it will mean a further delay.

Three important London by-elections coming up, as well as the Henley contest. Check out the London BNP website for all the details here.

Thursday, 5 June 2008

TODAY it's the Cockermouth by-election and no doubt Paul Stafford and his team are already in All Saints Ward putting out the Don't Forget to Vote BNP' leaflet.

I have to hang my head in shame and admit that I haven't put out a single leaflet or knocked on a single door to help in this campaign. The last month has just been too chaotic and the struggle to get our latest abode fit for purpose has taken up every hour of every day.

I know Paul will forgive me because we go back a long way. I can remember his letters arriving each month at the Pawsons Road office in Thornton Heath back in the early 1980s ordering 50-odd NF News for the Wigton and Workington groups. Then when I returned to Cumbria and joined the BNP after our time in France, who was my first contact? . . . Paul Stafford. That's the sort of consistency that political parties and personal associations are built on.

And that's not the end of the story. In 2002 when I was campaign manager for the elections in Burnley, Paul and another longstanding colleague Kevin Clarke, came with me twice a week down to Burnley (2x250 mile round trips) from the January through to polling day in May to help with the campaign that provided the BNP with its all important breakthrough. In those days there was no BNP in Cumbria. About six of us used to meet in Paul's front room to discuss things and that was it. Now we have meetings in Carlisle and Workington every month that attract 30-40 members and supporters to each venue.

As for today's by-election I don't know what to expect. In May 2007 Nigel Williamson contested Great Broughton ward which is also in Cockermouth and polled 10% so it would be useful if we could maintain that level of support. I did mention this figure to Clive Jefferson who is organising the campaign and he didn't argue. This is traditionally a Labour ward but where the Tories are challenging strongly and it seems that all the other parties might be squeezed.

Last May the six candidates contesting the three seats up for grabs were only from those two parties. Labour polled 874, 695 and 642 votes, while the Tories polled 767, 745 and 666 votes.

It's the last day of the Administration upgrade which has been taking place all this week. The software boffin who has been working on the new system has revolutionised the way things will be done and Tina reports that it is like "stepping out of the dark ages". There will be a lot of tweaking to be done in the coming weeks but it will transform the way the Party's Administration is being run.

First call on the telephone yesterday was gentleman wanting to donate £1,000 to our latest 'Truth Truck' appeal. When you get a call like that to start the day it puts a smile on everyone's face.

The builders have gone!! Now we have the plumbers for the central heating and then the electricans. Once Freedom is on the way to the printers I shall be donning my overalls and starting the painting and then it will be waiting for the carpet. What a relief when it is all over. Just to be able to work with adequate space and not in the centre of a house where every little disruption distracts you.

And it will be a full house this weekend as both daughters will be back from uni which means John will have to sleep on the sofa in the lounge as we are using his bedroom as an office. It is going to be a bit of a squeeze but Tina will be delighted to have all her chicks back in the nest. Before we moved we showed Emily the new house and her only comment was . . "It's a toy house!". Since we have moved we refer to this description more and more because it does sum it up so well.

Another nice day in Cumbria and I'm hopeful that the digging in the garden that I didn't do last night, will get get done this evening.

Don't get too excited it's only from the anti-BNP magazine Searchlight.

In the run-up to the May elections Searchlight can get its hands on vast sums of money to help fund its campaign against the BNP. But once May is over, these funds from the Labour Party and the Trade Unions dry up to nothing leaving Gerry, Sonia and Nick worrying about where their wages for the summer are going to come from.

To get all the anti-BNP groups coughing up the readies again, Searchlight has to paint a picture of the BNP on the verge of a major breakthrough to make these organisations panic and to start providing finance.

What is slightly different this time from other years is that Searchlight has placed these stories on the Internet as soon as the latest issue of the magazine has been published. This is a gamble because much of it will be read online removing the need for many of its readers to actually buy a copy of the publication.

It's a surprising move, which could mean that Searchlight sales have plummeted so low that revealing its content at this early stage in June won't make much difference to the magazine's sales. Or it could be that they are in such a serious financial state that they have had to publish online at the earliest opportunity to try to raise funds.

Either way, it's not our worry, and the offerings have provided an interesting posting for me this morning.

Day two of the new software introduction seminar today and yesterday apparently went very well with the new programme revolutionising the way our Administration Department will work.

My taxi duty yesterday was picking up and dropping off BNP fundraiser, Ged Munns, to and from Carlisle station. We had an interesting chat during the 50 minute round trip and it is certainly heartening to know who well our financial appeals are going. The money coming into the Party now from its dedicated membership is helping to transform the way the BNP goes about its business.

Another busy day today. As soon as I sign off here, I have to complete a resume of what I shall be speaking about at the Summer School. I had been hoping just to bang off a few bullet points and send those in for the Summer School programme but our event organiser wants something a little more substantial . . . she's a hard task master that Michaela.

Lovely morning up here in Cumbria. Just been for a walk to the shops and it's like being back in France its so warm and sunny. Hopefully I might be able to get out in the garden for a bit of digging this evening, Freedom permitting.

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Frank Field and the Daily Star are banging the BNP drum again and you can read the report here.

Early blog this morning as I'm on 'taxi duty' between 9.00 and 10.30, then on 'shopping duty' and then on 'ordering a carpet for the office duty' - and all before mid-day.

Chaos still reigns here with the builders nearing completion of their work but still with some 'noisy' work to finish in the house itself which makes work on Freedom almost impossible. What a relief it will be when this week is over, although next week is a difficult one as well with two 350 mile round trips for Tina and I on consecutive days and the Freedom deadline just 48 hours later.

Unfortunately the newspaper will be out a week later than scheduled because of the upheaval here - but as last month's publications were also late so they could carry the comprehensive round-up of our local elections results, hopefully its tardiness won't be felt too much. Next month it will be all systems go to get the July issue out on time.

"What concrete benefits does the Party get from all the recent publicity?" was a question I was asked yesterday, and the answer is easy.

Positive newspaper reports on the BNP creates an interest in the Party and all our office phones start ringing non-stop. We get new members signing up. We get lapsed members rejoining. We get members and supporters donating to the Party's fund-raising appeals and our activists get a morale boost to help them with their campaigning.

Those are the instant benefits for the Party, but also there are the benefits that we don't yet know about that come from the BNP being promoted to the public as an alternative to the Labour Party which is the current media theme.

It's the benefit of being talked about in homes, workplaces, pubs, and clubs across the country and that is something very new for the BNP. In the past people were too frightened to mention our name in public in case they were branded 'racists', and if a political party is not being talked about then it won't be on the voters' minds come election time.

That is why the coverage in the Daily Star and what Frank Field is saying at the moment is so hugely beneficial to us. It is an announcement: "Yes, now it is OK to openly talk about the BNP" and there's only one thing worse than being talked about . . . and that's NOT being talked about.

Monday, 2 June 2008

ANOTHER incredible weekend of publicity, the highlight of which was BNP South Somerset candidate Robert Baehr's appearance on the Politics Show on the BBC.

The Independent had quite an extensive report on Richard Barnbrook which was passable considering the political stance of that newspaper.

In the Sunday Telegraph there are some very good points raised by Labour MP Frank Field. These were some of the things that he had to say.

"The question is: with a further large chunk of the Labour vote vulnerable to the BNP, how will Gordon Brown react?"

"But such attempts to close down debate on the English Question will fail, just as party leaders’ attempts to prevent discussion of immigration collapsed under public protest at the polls."Indeed, the issues are linked in two significant ways. Both are still no-go areas for most major British politicians. Both feed the BNP vote. Slowly, but determinedly, the white English working class – and, I guess some black Britons, too – are voting against unlimited immigration by embracing the BNP."

"Failure by Labour to act decisively will again feed the BNP vote."

"Voters are on the move. Once the BNP gets a sizeable cut of the Labour working class vote across the country, it may be impossible for a Labour Government, no matter how talented, to re-establish the status quo."

Great stuff from Frank, and it doesn't surprise me one little bit. I have almost certainly mentioned it before on this blog, but I shall mention it again because it is relevant after this piece in the Telegraph.

When I became editor of the National Front's newspaper NF News in 1983, one of the perks of the job was to drop off some of the smaller orders for the newspaper to newsagents and bookshops around London. It was a perk because it got me out of the oppressive 'boarded up' Pawsons Road office in Thorton Heath and there were always some social calls along the route.

Now one such social call was at Barry's Books in Islington, which took ten copies of NF News each month, where there was always a cold can and a chat waiting. I asked one day who actually bought the newspapers and it transpired that each and every month Labour MP Frank Field came in for two copies. Years later when I published my own newspaper The Flag, Barry's Books still took it each month and Frank Field was still buying it. So it is no wonder that the MP for Birkenhead is so well briefed on the BNP in particular and nationalist politics in general.

There was a day of action on Saturday in Cockermouth in support of BNP candidate and Allerdale organiser Paul Stafford who is standing in All Saints Ward. Keep checking Clive Jefferson's blog for updates on this campaign and another one Carlisle BNP are contesting in the city's Upperby ward.

BNP stall in the West Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth on Saturday.